


Between Here And There

by theianitor



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dom/sub Undertones, Gas Station, Implied Relationships, M/M, Mentions others, Night shift - Freeform, liminal spaces, lots of people make an appearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-06 05:31:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14049963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theianitor/pseuds/theianitor
Summary: Daniel works the night shift at a gas station between two towns in the middle of nowhere. The work is fine, but kind of boring. The customers are mostly normal nobodies, and nothing much ever happens there.





	Between Here And There

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's a bit weird, but I needed to do "a something" and post to get back into things. The writing is a bit slow at the moment, so all words are good words. :)

****Daniel liked to walk through the station rather than take the staff entrance. It gave him a better feel for the place. It was already getting darker by the time he parked his car and got out to the familiar smell of warm tarmac, gasoline, and the dumpster next to the parking lot reserved for staff. The late-afternoon commuters had long-since passed and there probably wouldn’t be all too many night-time travelers tonight. Daniel mistakenly sighed deeply, inhaling way too much of the dumpster aroma. Coughing, he walked around to the front of the station and went inside.

“Good day, mate!” Felipe called from behind the counter. There was nobody else in the store and the little man was sat as he always was when business was slow; reading comic books, one leg tucked under himself, his other foot dangling above the footrest of the high chair they had at the register.

“Lots to do then yeah?” Daniel asked, crossing the store and heading for the always locked door to the staff room. On the way past, he gave the ice cream freezer a little kick so it would stop buzzing for a few minutes.

“You can tell!” Felipe called after him.

The door made the same sharp beeping noise it always did when faced with a keycard, and Daniel went inside to change. The locker room was dingy and always kind of smelled like old, used clothes. It wasn’t until he’d gotten his company shirt on that he realized his nametag had fallen off somewhere. Looking inside the locker he couldn’t find it, and he made a mental note of ordering a new one. Policy stated he had to have a tag, but the idea of wearing a trainee-badge didn’t appeal much to him. One night wouldn’t do any harm he figured.

 

\--

 

Felipe filled him in on what needed to be done and it was nothing out of the ordinary: restocking some shelves, mopping the floors (which was always to be done once per shift), and making sure the toilet was clean. Now and then Daniel left the counter to go give the freezer a kick. Felipe had also helpfully left the take from his shift, with a note in his own squiggly handwriting, detailing what needed to go on the sales-sheet for the day.

“You can’t leave me with _your_ paperwork!” Daniel called after him as he noticed the paper.

“Sorry, I have to go!” Felipe said back, waving cheerfully. “Will owe you!”

“Damn straight you will,” Daniel muttered, grabbing a form from a drawer below the till and starting to fill it out.

 

He looked up when the sensor by the door made its tired, out-of-tune noise, signaling customers. It was a group of boys, probably in their upper teens or lower twenties. They seemed spirited, but not in a troublemaking kind of way. Daniel had learned pretty quickly how to assess customers as soon as they came in the door; if the newcomers had seemed drunk or anything like that he would have kept a closer eye on them. Now he looked up, nodded in greeting, and then went back to his forms.

The boys split up, two blonds going down the aisle where the chips and snacks were, two boys with darker hair going for the fridges where the drinks stood.

“Don’t get anything too expensive Stoff, you know he can’t afford it!” the shorter of the two blond boys called over the shelf. The boys over by the drinks turned towards the sound, one looking kind of amused, the other looking grumpy. Daniel thought the grumpy one must be the oldest; if they were buying beer, chances were this was the guy they’d send to the counter.

“Are you walking home then, Kev?” The grumpy one said. “Last I checked the car out there is mine, but if it doesn’t meet your expensive tastes...”

The taller of the blonds snickered and gave the smaller one a little shove. Over by the drinks, the one Daniel figured must be ‘Stoff’ leaned down and picked up two cases of beer.

The two blonds kept arguing playfully and selected a few bags of chips. The one with the beer came over to the counter, followed by the grumpy one, who has grabbed two big sodas. Daniel checked the beer-carrier’s ID and was surprised both that it looked legit, that he was of age, and that his name was apparently ‘Stoffel’. He heard him call the other one ‘Joe’ when asking something, and then he paid for both of their purchases.

“Oh that’s nice, leave me to pay for all this myself?” The shorter blond, ‘Kev’, had come over, and dropped his armful of chips and candy on the counter. “Marcus, help me out.”

The taller blond grumbled something, but took out his wallet and handed over a few bills. Daniel rung them up, and the boys all left, still bickering and laughing.

 

\--

 

Daniel kept checking the time. It was a bad habit that came with working the night shift. Usually the shifts were so slow it felt like time wasn’t moving at all and it left him feeling a little strange, somewhere between tired and buzzed, sluggish and restless. Most of the time he felt like he was checking not to find out the time, but just to make sure the clock was still running.

He didn’t want to mop the floors too early in the shift and run the risk of the floor being dirty again by the time the morning guy got there. He checked the time sheet. Brendon had the morning, that was good. Brendon was a nice guy.

With a sigh, Daniel glanced at the monitors for the security cameras and then walked over and kicked the freezer. Once it quieted down he could hear the weak sounds of the radio. It was a funny thing, really. He couldn’t remember ever recognizing a song that played on this station.

 

\--

 

There usually weren’t many customers during the night shift but today was incredibly slow. Daniel restocked shelves and made sure the totals for the behind-the-counter products added up right. He was filling up one of the fridges when the tired door-sensor sounded again, and walking back to the register he saw a man and a woman come in. Something felt a little odd about them. The man was tall, with dark hair and dark eyes. The woman was pretty short, with blond, shoulder-length hair. They didn’t look that remarkable. When he had stopped behind the counter, Daniel looked again and realized what had felt off.

Their clothes were completely out of date, by at least a good 50 years. She had on what Daniel would have called a blouse, shapeless and straight in a muted blue color, with a prim white collar and three decorative buttons on the front. One button must have fallen off, because the pattern would have made a square if there had just been four of them. Her skirt was long and brown with a lot of pleats; it made her look a bit like a lampshade. She smiled at Daniel but said nothing and walked towards the little stand of fruit. She had a dark blue scarf or something wrapped around her chest and shoulders, and when she turned Daniel saw a baby peeking up from the makeshift scarf-sling on her back.

The man had gone over to the bread and looking over the selection. His clothes weren’t as eye-catching as the woman’s, but definitely as outdated. They looked like something out of an old movie. Checking outside, Daniel saw an old but seemingly well-kept angular car in a horrid teal color. He had kind of been expecting a horse and carriage.

The couple spoke so softly Daniel couldn’t hear them, but the man sounded like he had an accent. When they came to the register the woman stayed behind him, but still smiled in a friendly kind of way.

“This, please,” the man said. Definitely an accent, Daniel thought, ringing up a loaf of bread, a small bag of apples, and a gallon of milk. He told them the total, and the man took a small coin purse out of his breast pocket. He counted out the money and handed it to Daniel, nodding once as if that concluded business, and turned to leave. Daniel looked at the bills in his hand. The man had left more than enough money, and he started counting out the change on the till. Then he realized the money was old. Very old. In fact, two of the bills were so old Daniel didn’t recognize them. He wasn’t sure they were even valid.

“Excuse me, sir?” he said. The woman took a step forward and clasped his hand with both of hers.

“We don’t need the change,” she said, sounding quite serene. She had a very different accent to the man. “It’ll come back to us.”

“Susie,” the man called from over by the door. She nodded at Daniel again, still smiling, and then left. Daniel watched them go out to their car and heard them putter away. He made a note about the money and would simply have to hope that it didn’t cause trouble when counting the register out.

 

\--

 

It wasn’t long before the door sounded again. A skinny-looking young man had come inside, looking at Daniel like he was trying to not be seen doing so. He was wearing blue jeans and a denim jacket, and had a backpack over one shoulder. Outside, a guy about the same age but with darker skin and a mop of black hair was pumping gas into what Daniel would have called a soccer mom-car. He wouldn’t have reacted at all, but the guy in the store was acting so sketchy he felt like he needed to keep an eye on him.

The guy browsed, seemingly looking at everything and nothing, picking a few bottles up from the shelf of car maintenance products to read the labels. He looked nervous and kept glancing towards the register, checking where Daniel was and what he was doing. Daniel kept his head down and casually flicked through the comic book Felipe had left, but watched the guy.

The darker of the two came inside, looked around, and went straight for his friend. They were both dressed in layers and looked much too warm for the season; the darker guy even had a puffy yellow sleeveless jacket on. As they moved through the shelves, looking at things seemingly at random and speaking in very low voices, Daniel removed the thought that they were casing the place and planning to rob him. Rather, they seemed to be waiting for something, both nervously checking the door, and Daniel, and the lot outside.

Keeping in mind that they probably weren’t going to rob him, and that they’d been very much seen by the surveillance cameras if they did, Daniel’s focus actually slipped more into the comics than the young men for a few seconds. His experience still led him to have one eye constantly on the monitors under the counter, and he saw clearly that the two guys kept looking at him, and as soon as they thought he wasn’t looking the guy with the backpack swung it off his arm and ducked down behind the shelf. Daniel would bet anything he’d find at least two handfuls of candy bars missing.

Rather than interrupt them however, he kept looking. They definitely weren’t career shoplifters; they both acted so suspicious that they’d be caught instantly, and they both seemed to think it was the crime of the century.

Their heads popped up comically over the shelf when another car pulled up outside. Out of habit, Daniel checked too. A tall, thin man had gotten out of the gray four-door and was putting gas in. From the passenger side, a younger man had gotten out and was sort of hovering behind him.

“Can I use the bathroom?” one of the guys in the store called over to Daniel, shaking him out of his thoughts. He distinctly heard the one in the yellow jacket go “Dany, no!”

“’course, in the back,” Daniel said, pointing. He pressed the button at the counter to unlock the bathroom door. At the same time as the door sounded, he saw both young men ducking in to the bathroom. He hoped they wouldn’t get in to anything stupid in there.

 

The new arrivals came inside and the taller one went straight for the counter, the younger one walking behind him, his shoulders slightly hunched and his eyes kept downcast. Daniel thought they looked too little like each other to be father and son, but they might still have had an argument or something he supposed. The thin man smiled and said something in what Daniel thought must be French.

“Excuse me,” Daniel said, putting on his most polite smile. “English?”

“Ah, of course, very sorry,” the man said, putting his hands up, “it becomes habit. I want to pay for the gas,” he pointed to his car outside, “and I would like a cup of coffee.”

“Coming right up,” Daniel said, showing the man the two sizes of cup they offered. He selected the bigger one. Just as he was starting to fiddle with the coffee machine, Daniel heard the older man speaking French again. It was a longer statement this time, certainly not meant for him, and glancing over his shoulder he saw that the man was talking to the boy who had come in with him.

He had dark hair and eyebrows and looked like he might be an athlete of some sort, he had a strong-looking build. Since he’d been walking behind the other Daniel hadn’t really noticed him at first. Now the younger man was staring at the other, looking shocked. The older man was grinning at him. With a blush in his cheeks, the younger man scurried off towards the snacks.

“Not very busy tonight?” the older man said casually to Daniel.

“Nah, nights are usually quiet around here.”

They kept making small talk, Daniel explaining the commuter traffic between the two towns connected by this road, the other man indicating they were only out so late because some roadwork had led to an unforeseen detour along these roads.

He had just taken his first sip of coffee when the younger man came shuffling back to the counter. He had selected a small bottle of mineral water and was clutching it like it was a bomb that might go off at any second. The older man didn’t look over when he came up next to him.

“... monsieur Grosjean?” the younger man said very quietly. The older man looked over, smiled, and took the bottle of mineral water. He rambled off something more in French and the boy looked shocked again, the blush instantly back. Then he turned to Daniel, looking defiant.

“One packet of condoms, please,” he said through gritted teeth. His English was a lot better than the other guy’s, Daniel thought. Before he could ring up the purchases, the older one had said something more in French and then looked away. The younger one glared for a second, then seemed to settle down. He turned back to Daniel and spoke very quietly, not looking at him.

“... and lube, please.”

Daniel had stopped reacting to people buying condoms and such things long ago, but there was something about this guy’s behavior that made him feel embarrassed _for_ him. The older guy didn’t seem to care, and Daniel did his best to act casual, ringing up the items and putting them all in a little bag.

“What do you say, Lance?” the older man asked, in English this time. Lance glanced up at Daniel but then inclined his head a little.

“Thank you,” he said.

The older man took the bottle of lube out of the bag and pushed it on Lance, waiting until he took it. He clutched it to his chest like he didn’t want anyone to see it. The older man shot him a grin, said goodbye to Daniel, and they left for the car – the younger man walking in front now with his cheeks flaming red, the older man’s hand around the back of his neck.

 

It had been quiet for a few minutes when Daniel heard the bathroom door open and realized he’d forgotten about the two guys who had gone in there. He blinked. They had traded clothes. Now the darker of the two was in double denim, and the skinnier guy had the puffy yellow jacket-vest on. The backpack looked fuller, so they must have stuffed some of the clothes in there. They picked up some snacks and went for the counter, still looking around like they were expecting a SWAT-team to come busting in at any moment.

The darker of the two had the cuffs unbuttoned and the sleeves of his jacket rolled up. On his forearm, Daniel could see a bruise, not a fresh one but still healing, very much visible. He wondered briefly if these two had been fighting. Then it struck him. Runaways.

He rang up the candy and conveniently forgot to charge for the gas; they hadn’t taken that much anyway, definitely not enough to fill up the car. The boys looked at each other, still nervous, but left in a hurry. Daniel heard them speeding off from the lot, and hoped they’d be safe.

 

\--

 

When the next car pulled up, Daniel couldn’t help but stare. The hubcaps were flawlessly shiny, glittering under the station lights, and the whole car was a rich red color that put him in mind of Ferrari sports cars. It couldn’t be a Ferrari though. But still.

The guy who came inside was short, but immaculately dressed in a suit that Daniel thought must have been made for him – his tie even matched the car out front. He was rather broad in the shoulder and neck, he looked sturdy. He looked at Daniel but didn’t return his greeting, and went for the shelf of car-related products.

After a while he approached the counter and Daniel got a closer look at him. Everything about him felt expensive; from the suit to his obviously groomed eyebrows, his well-kept short beard and his wavy dark hair – even the way he _smelled_ was pricey. Daniel rang up his purchases. One bottle of bleach, a tow-rope with double sling hooks, and three rolls of duct tape.

“Cash or card?”

“You can get money from the card, yes?” the man asked.

“Yes sir,” Daniel said, not sure exactly where the ‘sir’ had come from. The man held out a credit card, full black with silvery details and logos. It felt a bit too heavy to be plastic, and Daniel hoped that if it was foreign, the machine would still take it and save him any embarrassment. There were no problems, and he gave the man his cash. He had expected the man to re-insert the card to pay for the items, but he quickly counted out the bills and handed some cash back.

“Thank you,” the man said, and walked back out the way he had come. Daniel watched the classy-looking sports car taking off, thinking he could work a lifetime and never afford a car like that.

 

\--

 

Daniel had just gotten the little wagon with all the cleaning equipment out of the too-small cleaning cupboard when the sour notes of the door sensor chimed. On his way over to the register he gave the ice cream freezer a swift kick, and made a mental note to put in a request for someone to repair it. That noise would drive anyone crazy.

Two men came inside, and again there was definitely one older and one younger, but this time Daniel felt sure they were father and son. They had similar eyes, the same dark hair, and jawlines that just _had_ to have been passed down. The older one looked kind of rugged, he thought. Possibly outdoorsy types.

They confirmed his suspicions by heading for the energy bars and bigger jugs of water.

“Is it alright if he takes ‘em straight to the car?” the older one asked, and Daniel grinned.

“’course mate, just keep track of him.” The older man grinned back.

“Aussie?” he asked. Daniel nodded. “Well what do ya fucking know...”

The younger man carried two jugs of water outside and came back for two more while Daniel and the older man, who introduced himself as Mark, chitchatted. Mark selected a few packs of dried fruit and some energy bars, and the younger one busied himself outside with checking the oil of the pickup truck they had arrived in and putting some gas in it.

“Chalk up two more bottles of water and the gas and that’ll be it,” Mark said. Daniel did as he was told and Mark paid with a credit card. The younger man had stayed by the car outside and Mark went over to the door.

“Oi, Mitch! Two more, don’t start slacking off!”

The younger man stomped back, obviously grumbling and cursing all the way.

“At least help me carry ‘em then, old man,” he said as he came through the door and slouched back towards the fridges. Mark walked over to grab the last of their requested water, and the door sounded.

 

The man who came inside was shorter than Daniel, and he looked kind of small. His hair had been dyed blond but was growing back darker. He had a dark blue hoodie on and jeans so tight they looked like he had painted them on himself. The hoodie was way too big and the sleeves came down over his hands. Daniel rather thought there was some kind of logo, maybe a shiny black something on the front, but the guy had his arms folded over his chest like he had to hold the shirt up so he couldn’t really tell. Walking inside, the guy looked around once and then headed for the bathroom and tried the door.

“It opens from over here mate, hang on,” Daniel called, opening the door. The man disappeared inside. Glancing outside, Daniel saw the car he must have arrived in; a black, dusty four-door of some kind. There was a guy by the car, fiddling with getting the fuel cap opened. He pumped the gas and then came inside.

His eyes were ice cold. There was no other way of putting it, Daniel thought. The man scanned Daniel up and down but didn’t look too interested in what he saw, and it felt _cold_. He had a beanie on, but blond strands were peeking out from under it, so he must have quite long hair. His face was angular, but not like the two guys before, more like it was pointy.

“Two small coffee,” he said, his voice flat and uninterested. He turned away from Daniel, gave the little fruit-stand a glance, and started looking at the shelf of snacks. Daniel set two paper cups of coffee down on the counter a moment later, but the man didn’t go for them. Now that the man was looking away Daniel dared a longer look. The man’s clothes were worn and dusty, and his light blue jeans were spattered with something dark, like someone had jumped in a puddle next to him.

 

When he heard the bathroom door open, Daniel looked up. It wasn’t the man coming out of the bathroom that caught his eye though, it was the two he had taken for father and son. They were still in the corner by the water jugs, but the bigger of the two had crowded the smaller up against the glass door, and they were kissing. Kissing a lot. The smaller one, Mitch, kept breaking the kiss, biting his lip and looking playful, and Daniel rather thought that what he was doing wouldn’t have been clearer if he’d been wearing a shirt that said “tease” on the front.

The man who had come out of the bathroom had noticed the pair too as he had come out right beside them. He cleared his throat loudly.

“Problem, mate?” Mark said, shooting him a serious look. The blond man looked between the two of them and made an affronted little noise.

“Seb.”

Daniel startled as the guy with the beanie had raised his voice slightly. The blond, who he had called Seb, gave Mark one last derisive look, and then walked over to his partner. They spoke in low tones and then Seb went to pick up one of the coffees. He had taken off his hoodie in the bathroom and had it tied over his shoulders, showing a tight black t-shirt which he must have outgrown recently – it stopped short of his pants, revealing several inches of skin. He sipped his coffee and smiled sweetly at Daniel.

“Thank you,” he said. “It’s very hot.”

 

“Ring this up for me,” Mitch called, walking out the door and waving a candy bar at Daniel, who grinned. Mark came over to the register to pay, looking none too impressed with his ‘friend’. As he approached, Daniel didn’t miss that both the man in the beanie and the no-longer-hoodie-wearing Seb were looking at him. Mark noticed too, glancing from one to the other.

“Really?” he said, a hint of amusement in his voice. The guy in the beanie took one step forward, putting himself between Seb and Mark. His face was completely impassive, just staring at the other. For some reason, Daniel knew there wouldn’t be a fight, but he still felt like Mark might be in trouble. Mark didn’t seem to think so though.

“Really,” he repeated, more a statement the second time.

They looked at each other for a few seconds before Mark turned away, paid, and left with a little wave to Daniel. He could tell the man in the beanie was watching Mark go. The weird tension between them still hung in the air. Seb put down his coffee cup on the counter.

“Can we get some candy?” he asked.

“Fine,” came the answer, and Daniel realized he’d thought the beanie would flat-out refuse. He didn’t seem the type. Seb went over to the snacks and chose two bags of candy while the beanie was counting out cash out of a grubby-looking wallet. The one called Seb picked up his cup once more and drained the last of the coffee.

“Bye!” he said cheerfully.

The beanie took their change and his cup and left without a word.

When Daniel made to put the empty coffee cup in the trash, he found a smear of something sticky on it. It was a dark red smudge. It reminded him that he was supposed to check the bathroom between every visitor, and he hadn’t checked once tonight.

The bathroom looked mostly fine, but the trashcan needed emptying. It was overflowing with crumpled, red-smudged sheets from the towel dispenser next to the sink, and when he looked closer the sink would need a wipe-down too. There were diluted red blotches and drops here and there, like the blond guy had washed paint off of something and then tried to clean up after himself. Daniel sighed, hoping it would come off without too much elbow grease.

 

\--

 

By the time the door signal rang out again, Daniel had mopped the floor and cleaned the bathroom. He was just closing the door to the cleaning cupboard and on his way back to the register looked at the new customer. Older than Daniel, casually dressed, and giving him a crooked smile. On his way over to the register, the guy gave the ice cream freezer one well-aimed kick, and the machine quieted down.

“Petrol on number four, please,” the man said with a decidedly English accent, “and two scratch cards if you’ve got any?”

Daniel rang up the lottery tickets and the gas and the man paid.

“Cheers Daniel,” he said with a smile, gave him a strange kind of blink, and then walked out to his car and drove off.

As he watched the man drive away from the parking lot, something suddenly felt very off to Daniel. For some reason, he thought it had something to do with his nametag. Then he remembered he wasn’t wearing one. He thought about it for a little bit, but couldn’t recall ever having even seen the guy before. Hm.

 

\--

 

Not long thereafter, the door sounded again. It was a blond young man in all-white clothes, who was looking at the door sensor like he hadn’t realized it would make a noise when he passed through it. He smiled at it, and then walked slowly through the store. Daniel thought he must be under the influence of something, but at least he seemed calm.

For several minutes the man drifted through the store completely aimlessly, fascinatedly happy with everything. He touched the glass door of the drinks fridge, gently poked a bag of chips and seemed delighted when it made a crisping sound under his finger, and cautiously sniffed one of the magazines on the rack. Daniel kept an eye on him, but other than the fact that he didn’t seem to know what anything was, he didn’t seem like trouble.

Finally, he saw the ice cream freezer and walked around it slowly several times. Then he opened the lid and pulled his hand back quickly, like he was surprised that it was cold in there. He reached inside and picked out an ice cream, and made his way towards the counter after carefully closing the freezer lid again.

Now that he came closer, Daniel got the feeling he was very clean. Clean to the point of seeming sterile. His white clothing was clean, his skin was pale and completely smooth, and his bright blond hair looked very light – not like it had any products in it, more like it had never had products in it at all. His eyes were blue, and he looked at Daniel without blinking, still with a little smile on his face. Above the collar of his shirt, right below his Adam’s apple, Daniel saw a small tattoo of the number ‘6’.

Daniel told him the price of the ice cream and the man proceeded to look in both his pants pockets, the breast pocket of his shirt, and the back pocket of his pants, finding change in each and every place. The coins were so shiny they looked new. When he’d put enough of them on the counter he took his ice cream and left, nodding at the door sensor as it made its noise to let him out.

A moment later Daniel realized he hadn’t seen a car parked out front while the man was in the store. The whole lot was to the front; he should have seen it. He was curious to see what a weirdo like that might be driving.

He wound the surveillance tape back a little bit, the old system taking its time to comply, but then he saw the man on the outside camera. He walked away from the store, but not towards the parking lot. There must have been a car out of sight. But the only way in or out for a car was at the front of the lot. When the man in white was two thirds of the way out of the shot, the screen blinked once, and then the man was gone. Daniel sighed. Stupid old surveillance system.

 

\--

 

Daniel had just gotten back to his comic book when the unharmonious chime of the door sensor rang out again. It was a taller guy this time, with brown hair and a reddish beard.

“Alright?” he said to Daniel, who nodded back. “I’m on three,” he said, jerking his thumb at the car out front. He walked to the back like he’d been in the store before and picked up two sodas. Daniel looked outside to check the car, and saw a shorter man pumping gas at the third pump. He had dark, sort of thinning hair... and when he looked up, Daniel stared. He looked a whole lot like Felipe. There was something slightly different though, he couldn’t quite place it, something about the man’s eye seemed a bit off... but he looked an awful lot like Felipe.

“Sommet wrong?”

Daniel looked back at the guy in the store who had come over.

“Nah, sorry, I thought... he looks a lot like a guy I know.”

“Who, Phillip?” the guy with the beard laughed, throwing a glance over his shoulder at the man outside. “I can assure you he’s one of a kind, and it’s just as well.”

He paid for his things and left.

 

An hour later, Daniel had just finished counting out the register when Brendon arrived to take the morning shift.

 

\--

 

The next day Daniel winced at the out-of-tune door sensor and walked through the store, saying hi to Felipe and giving the ice cream freezer a good kick on the way. He got dressed and remembered that he still hadn’t ordered a new name-tag for himself. When he came back out, Felipe was just finishing counting out his shift.

“There was a guy outside last night who looked just like you,” Daniel said.

“Really? Very handsome then, I think!” Felipe said, running a hand through his hair and grinning at Daniel. “Anything else happen?”

“Nah, you know how it is,” Daniel sighed. “Nothing much ever happens here.”

 

\- The End -

**Author's Note:**

> This was all in good fun, as per usual. :)  
> Thank you very much for the read. <3


End file.
